Hard Pass

Riley

I rolled over in my bed, and ignored the soft knock at the door.

"Riley... you okay? I thought I heard you crying last night," she whispered roughly as if trying to not wake me if I was still asleep.

I lay still and held my breath, making sure to keep my eyes closed. Tears welled up in my eyes again, and it had nothing to do with not being good enough for Ethan and everything to do with the embarrassment of rejection. I was a silly girl who thought that just because the universe opened its hand and offered me one dream that I might get access to another.

I wanted James Bond. Steve Sumner. Philip Jessing. All the men Ethan had made us believe he was. What I didn't want was to stare the real man in the face and know that he could see right through me. That he could almost smell my arousal each and every time we got close. My stomach turned at the thought.

The door closed and I turned onto my other side, letting out a soft cry in the wet cotton below me. I wanted to run from all of